Ireland is blocking ICCL from taking the cases it needs to take to protect vulnerable children against dangerous and addictive social media companies. www.irishtimes.com/technology/2...

Response from the President of the @ec.europa.eu It would have been good if the President had provided links or citation to the evidence. www.iccl.ie/wp-content/u...

My testimony at the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) Justice Committee yesterday evening: new documents reveal serious problems in the recruitment process for Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner.

This afternoon I will speak at the Oireachtas Justice Committee. I will share new information obtained by ICCL about the latest Data Protection Commissioner recruitment process, in which a former Meta spokesperson was appointed Ireland's new Data Protection Commissioner. www.iccl.ie/press-releas...

Good interview by @hlinehan.bsky.social with Eoin Drea. podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/i...

My conversation (long) with Oles Andriychuk on Tech, Competition, Privacy, Power is now live www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIkc...

Trump inadvertently boosts the Green energy agenda apnews.com/article/midd...

Before The Smyths there was Patrick Kavanagh

Caption this

We reaffirm our firm commitment to the principles of international law and the rules-based order everywhere in the world.

I have just held a call with President Pedro Sánchez to express the EU’s full solidarity with Spain. The EU will always ensure that the interests of its Member States are fully protected.

Apple + Microsoft + Eli Lilly paid 46% of all corporate tax to Ireland in 2024 See note from the Ireland's Fiscal Advisory Council. - www.fiscalcouncil.ie/new-council-... - www.irishtimes.com/business/eco...

US Border Patrol admits using Real-Time Bidding (RTB) data to track people's movements. The failure to enforce against the RTB data breach at the heart of online advertising is very, very dangerous. Big scoop by @josephcox.bsky.social @404media.co! www.404media.co/cbp-tapped-i...

And @alankellytipp.bsky.social has a point here www.rte.ie/news/politic...

I'm literally in tears listening to President Catherine Connolly's fierce speech about the silence about ongoing genocide, how the rule of law, humans rights, civil liberties, and freedoms are diminishing before our eyes... at the 50th anniversary of the @iccl.bsky.social

Temu booked €1.7B in Europe through Dublin. But what about tax? Documents indicate that the "Double Irish" is back. The Irish State claims ignorance. Clip - See exchange in the Irish Parliament yesterday between Sinéad Gibney and Minister Jack Chambers.

This idea is gathering some support - see @martinsandbu.ft.com in the FT today www.ft.com/content/b92f...

Irish Data Protection Commission was asked today in Committee: have you ever taken a GDPR decision on Google? Answer... No. Ireland is responsible for supervising Google's data use across the whole EU. It has produced no decisions. Kudos @sineadgibney.bsky.social for asking the question.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) is responsible for protecting people across the EU because tech firms put their HQ offices in Ireland. DPC admitted today that it hasn't finished a single Google investigation since the GDPR was introduced. Kudos @sineadgibney.bsky.social for asking

Irish Data Protection Commission was asked today in Committee: have you ever taken a GDPR decision on Google? Answer... No. Ireland is responsible for supervising Google's data use across the whole EU. It has produced no decisions. Kudos @sineadgibney.bsky.social for asking the question.

Switch recommender algorithms off They should not be on anyway, per GDPR Art 9 and AI Act Art 5 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Europeans are dangerously reliant on US tech. Now is a good time to build our own | Johnny Ryan

My piece in The Guardian this morning: Europe’s path to technological independence from the U.S. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"the Commission recalls that as far as the dominant position of IBM in the European market is concerned ... will be vigilant to ensure that there is no use of such a dominant position" From 1974 aei.pitt.edu/97739/1/1974...

Boom!

EU Leaders meet tomorrow to discuss measures to lift Europe's anaemic growth rate. But the summit risks turning into a nothing burger. EU Leaders have cherry-picked a macroeconomically meaningless simplification agenda from the Draghi report New oped. 1/ www.politico.eu/article/euro...

I said this quietly to senior officials in Ireland over the last 12 months. Now it requires public statement. Ireland became rich because -among other reasons- it is the venue where US tech firms can operate in Europe with relative impunity. But this strategy may not last much longer.

The Sánchez 🇪🇸 government has - built Europe's boom economy - hiked minimum wage from €736 to €1221 - cut insecure work from c.30% to c.13% - regularised, not demonised, migrants - stood up for human rights - refused to humiliate itself before Trump No wonder Musk hates it.

Clear communication. This writer knows what they think, and what they want the reader to know.

Bravo. The new Dutch coalition government's agreement is committing to digital sovereignty (Machine translation) Original in Dutch --> www.kabinetsformatie2025.nl/site/binarie... H/T @stollmeyer.bsky.social

Meanwhile in Ireland… @tjmcintyre.com @johnnyryan.bsky.social

Former PMs to VDL “This confrontation concerns…the right of nations to govern themselves without foreign interference; and their ability to protect their children in the digital age. The question is not whether Europe can strike a deal, it is whether Europe and the rest of the world can remain free”

This morning, former Prime Ministers urge Ursula von der Leyen to use EU trade bazooka against Trump www.ft.com/content/af70...

Google's 2007 spiel about its Doubleclick acquisition makes for hilarious reading two decades later publicpolicy.googleblog.com/2007/12/anal...

A spark of action from the European Commission on social media recommender algorithms at long last ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Comics retailing legend Greg Ketter standing up to ICE in Minneapolis. Yes, that's tear gas. He's 70 years old.

The latest evidence that broadcasting people’s movements and intimate data in the Real-Time Bidding online advertising system is truly dangerous. www.wired.com/story/ice-as...

The EU and US may (we do not know) have arrived at a 1938 style Munich Declaration "agreement" over Greenland. But this is no recipe for peace for our time. Nor was it then.

We still do not know whether there was a Greenland deal, or threats, or continued cowering, or who did and said what.

Vows response if Trump restarts the scrap: "Any threat to acquire European territory by force would be unacceptable. Tariffs would also undermine the foundations of transatlantic relations, if they are put in place, Europe's answer would be united, calm, measured and firm."

Here at #EUCO, 🇪🇺PMs & presidents are discussing transatlantic relations. Based on their comments as they entered, we can see that the leaders are divided into three camps. And Chancellor Merz seems to have joined the Meloni appeaser camp. davekeating.substack.com/p/meloni-was...

So far as I can tell this morning no one absent from the private meetings in Davos knows yet why Trump backed down. We do not yet know -what we said by who to Trump -whether Rutte was pivotal -what the deal was, or if there is any deal at all -we don’t even know if any big EU threat was made

The moment for making nice “has ended” and “the time has come to stand up against Trump,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former NATO secretary-general and ex-Danish prime minister, told BBC radio.

Dude, use the teleprompter

Paul Krugman is asking the critical question: will Europe finally use its power?

This is truly terrifying

needs to be done Europe-wide. and applied to US World Cup too - don't buy tickets

Danish consumers have started to boycott U.S. products. UdenUSA, an app to identify U.S. products is now 4th most popular in the App Store. www.dr.dk/nyheder/indl...

Merz calculating whether to hit Trump back He should consider 1. If Trump + big tech algos continue boosting AfD in to power, won’t AfD Govt find a way to jail Merz? 2. Can German car industry replace lost exports to the US with Euro military production? 3. US midterms too far away. Punch hard

Davos, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum.